“Whether I’m sitting, standing, walking, running, my thighs touch. I don’t have eyebrow hair. At my height of 5’3″, my BMI is in the ‘overweight’ range. I never wear shorts anymore. You see, I’ve always been body-conscious.”
‘My thighs touch. No matter what, they stick together like glue. I never wear shorts, not even in hot as heck Florida.’: Mom urges self-love, ‘These imperfections are the least interesting thing about me’
‘Do you want to meet your birth parents?’ I remember hearing her shut her car door. I could no longer breathe.’: Woman adopted at birth reunites with birth family, ‘It was my journey to take’
“As an adopted child, feeling like you are ALONE is often just a part of the territory. Feeling that way when I’d been given so much was difficult and made me feel so guilty. With sadness and the ever-growing ‘birth family’ hole in my heart, I moved forward with my life. These ‘search angels’ did more for me than they will ever know.”
‘I send them back, I’m selfish. I keep them home, I’m depriving them of proper education.’: Mom weighs in on school reopenings, ‘We could all use a little extra love right now’
“I don’t want to take that mental health risk, so I’ll send them. But, now I’m greedy and don’t care about the teachers. Okay, so I’ll send them… but, we have to skip Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthday parties. Now, my kids are upset. They miss their family.”
‘I thought you’d be more excited.’ I had a pit in my stomach. I wonder who it was that we lost.’: Mom navigates secondary infertility, rainbow baby, ‘It all lead up to one moment’
“I bought a shirt that said, ‘Shhh, I have a secret, I’m going to be a big brother’ for my son to wear but I forgot it. I am a very superstitious person and this was the first bad omen I felt. All the blood rushed out of my head.”
‘She’s missing a bone in her leg.’ We had an impossible decision to make. I kissed her little broken foot goodbye.’: Mom amputates infant daughter’s leg, ‘She’s our saving grace’
“The doctors hit us with a heavy blow. ‘She won’t be able to walk. Ever.’ We tried to memorize how she looked with two little legs.”
‘We need you to make us not feel crazy. We need you to keep us grounded. Loving someone with anxiety isn’t easy, but stick with us.’: Woman battling anxiety says ‘we love harder than most’
“We need you to remind us we aren’t actually dying. This feeling will pass. We are not crazy, and everything will be alright. Sometimes, we will need you to hold us close, but other times, we will want you to be nowhere near us. Loving someone with anxiety is not easy.”
‘What are you doing, baby?’ I resuscitated him, and we kept going. The neurologists’ faces looked bleak.’: Mom brings son with Ohtahara Syndrome home after months in hospital
“Tate was having some seizure activity. ‘He’s not going to get better.’ I crumbled all over again with strangers and secretaries staring at me. ‘Anyone else would be driving as fast as they could towards a hospital, and you guys are driving as fast as you can away from it.’”
‘I gently patted my son’s back when I heard a crackling, wheezing sound. ‘Something’s wrong, I just know it,’ I told my husband.’: Mom candidly shares journey with parenting PTSD
“I cried to the nurse on the hotline, ‘It sounds like he has fluid in his chest.’ I would sit nursing my son, crying endlessly in that rocking chair. Every breath my son took heightened my already over-the-top anxiety attack. I knew it wasn’t just anxiety. It was something more. This was the start of so many triggers.”
‘I cried all day, waiting for a call from our doctor. She needed to see us right away.’: Family discover 2 other children have complex heart issues after newborn’s complications
“I was secretly hoping for a girl, but the sonographer told us it was a boy. I looked at Austin, smiled, and said, ‘At least we make healthy boys.’ The sonographer’s reaction was a little startling. She said, ‘Well, wait…’ She couldn’t get a good view of his heart, but she didn’t know why.”
‘George was breached. I wasn’t allowed a c-section to save him. ‘If you leave this hospital, you’ll regret it.’ He was so close.’: Woman births miracle preemie despite all odds, ‘I’m so proud to be his mom!’
“I was allowed no monitors to check on my baby during labor. I didn’t have a clue whether or not he was still alive. I was left in the dark. At 23 weeks, I didn’t dare look as I pushed him out. He was put into a small plastic bag, intubated at my side. I told my family, ‘This is the end.’ We planned his final outfit, said goodbye. Just in the nick of time, he showed us he wasn’t going anywhere.”
‘You don’t look good.’ I woke up on the floor, inches away from a brain bleed. No one came for me.’: Teen diagnosed with POTS and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, ‘My story isn’t over yet’
“I was losing weight and missing school a few days a week. I was in bed all week but when Friday rolled around, I insisted on going to the St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast. I barely remember the morning. We went on stage and just as the piano started, everything went black.”
‘Her neighbors found her on the side of the road. That’s when we knew. She wasn’t the same.’: Student becomes full-time caregiver for grandma with Alzheimer’s, ‘Normal life can wait’
“She didn’t laugh as much. She didn’t recognize me, and she wasn’t able to hold a conversation. I couldn’t believe the timing. It felt like a sign from my grandfather. I knew what I had to do.“
‘She’s been gone too long.’ It was a freak event during birth. She stopped breathing twice, turning grey.’: 2-day-old baby diagnosed with brain bleed, ‘She’s our big adventure’
“I knew something was wrong. A nurse came in and said Ellis had stopped breathing in the nursery twice. ‘She’s at high risk for significant developmental disabilities.’ He encouraged my husband and I to have a conversation about what to do if our baby didn’t wake up.”
‘When gifting us our rainbow baby boy my placenta was directly in line with my tumor.’: Woman with spinal tumor discovers ‘mini miracles inside a big miracle’
”Right before I was wheeled into the OR we discovered he, too, was not only a Buckeye but also graduated from the same small high school I graduated from. It gave all of us much more reassurance I was exactly where I needed to be at the exact right time. Mini miracle inside a big miracle.”
‘I’ll have her taken away from you.’ He played dad to a child who watched hers die months prior.’: Mom and daughter survive narcissistic abuse, ‘She was his victim, too’
“This was not, ‘Hey this isn’t working for me anymore. I hope we can still be friends.’ I found out he cheated on me, took my money, sold me a car he had pawned the title to. ‘I’ll have her taken away from you if you’re not careful.’”
‘I’m an elementary school teacher. I’m a week and a half from returning to work. The reality of school opening is hitting me hard.’: Teacher and mom shares realization, ‘I don’t want my 5-year-old carrying that burden’
“My daughter is starting kindergarten. She’ll be wearing a mask, staying 6 ft apart from others, and eating in her classroom. As we drew, I explained the new way school would be operating. This was now turning into something I never could have imagined.”
‘This is getting old. We’re done here. Goodbye.’ I suddenly felt a moment of empowerment.’: Woman shares moment she ‘woke up’ and decided ‘enough was enough’
“Somehow, the conversation led to relationships. We were just having a typical, texting conversation. I’m not entirely sure where this intense, urgent feeling of freedom came from. We were just having a typical, texting conversation. I was acting SO ridiculous and I suddenly felt a moment of empowerment.”
‘We went to stores to practice wearing a mask. He fought us hard. We couldn’t even make it out of the parking lot.’: Mom shares autistic son’s inspiring progress amid pandemic
“And then the unthinkable happened. Lots of crying, hitting, and aggression. But I was not ready to quit.”
‘All the adults are freaking out because they don’t like the sudden change in routine!’: Autism mom says ‘autism doesn’t allow change; he expects his old normal back’
“He worryingly asked her if he had coronavirus. He is 6 years old. He has no concept of social distancing. We thought schools closing was our biggest worry.”
‘I can’t breathe.’ His whole body was shivering. His eyes were filled with pure terror and a tear ran down his face.’: Woman shows life-saving kindness to old man, ‘It was my natural instinct’
“It was a completely deserted area: I saw a lone person sitting on the window seat. ‘Sir, Sir?’ I got no response. Against my better judgement, I reached out and touched his shoulder. He lifted his head and looked at me. I threw down the mail in my hand and my purse. ‘Can’t breathe.’”
‘She just listens to the ceiling fan spin. Her hurt and doubt soak her pillowcase with tears.’: Woman prays for others struggling with acceptance, ‘Dry her tears, God’
“When her head hits the pillow, her mind suddenly wakes up. And then, it gets really freaking mean. ‘Why aren’t you in better shape?’ it hisses in her head. ‘Your husband is aging better than you.’ By two, she’s exhausted from the thoughts, the Googling, and the tears.”
‘Why even have a baby shower?’ They were preparing us for a burial. At 12 hours old, he was on life support.’: Woman gives birth to baby with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, ‘He is a miracle’
“‘We need your permission to do whatever it takes to save your son’s life.’ I took one look at him and vomited. All I can remember is watching the nurse methodically pump a bag, breathing life into my son one squeeze at a time.”
‘You ghosted me when my husband died. You told me I was thinking too much about myself.’: Widow hurt by friends who abandoned her and broke promises
“I don’t know why you made promises and didn’t follow through. I needed my friend… but you were gone.”
‘Who is this stranger they placed on me? This is absolutely NOT my son.’ I couldn’t look at my husband.’: Mom to son with Down syndrome says ‘I have been so beautifully humbled’
“A scrumptious little boy was placed on my chest. I felt heart-stopping panic. ’This canNOT be my baby.’ I had prayed specifically against this. I thought things a mother should NEVER think.”
‘Is it normal to be nervous?’ I knew he wasn’t going to do a damn thing. It was not an attack on my parenting.’: Autism mom reminds special needs parents, ‘Your kid isn’t broken’
“I was convinced there wasn’t anything ‘wrong’ with my son. I would have been called a ‘refrigerator Mom,’ meaning I was cold-hearted and had ‘thawed out’ long enough to reproduce, then not showing my child love, resulting in a diagnosis.”